


Prompt: It’s Not Just A River In Egypt

by respoftw



Series: Comfortween 2020 [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s03e10-e11 The Return, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26775793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: Rodney is in denial. Then he isn’t.
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Series: Comfortween 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947178
Comments: 20
Kudos: 103
Collections: Comfortween 2020





	Prompt: It’s Not Just A River In Egypt

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a list of prompts for “Comfortween” [on dreamwidth](https://hurtcomfortex.dreamwidth.org/22946.html)
> 
> 3\. It’s Not Just A River In Egypt  
> Comforting someone who’s denying that anything is wrong.

The Ancients had returned to Atlantis and they were every bit the uncompromising dicks that John had suspected them to be.Stepping back through the gate to Earth was the hardest thing he had ever had to do.The sense of loss that slammed into him when the wormhole shut down behind him on the other side was extreme and the only thing that got him through it was the knowledge that everyone else from Atlantis was experiencing it too.

Well, everyone except Rodney.

Rodney was in a deep and seemingly permanent state of denial.

John had been waiting for the other shoe to drop the entire week they were both trapped under the mountain for debriefs.

It never did.

Any commiserations that the SGC staff voiced to Rodney were waved off with a “it’s only temporary”, usually spoken through a mouthful of jello. 

Even when O’Neill and Woolsey called in to update Landry with their complete and utter lack of progress, Rodney shrugged it off.“Please, like either one of them could negotiate their way out of a paper bag.Just wait, they’ll be begging to deal with someone else soon and then, hey presto, we’re back home where we belong.”

The longer it went on, the more concerned John became. The expedition members started to drift from the mountain one by one and Rodney barely even noticed.He didn’t even turn up for Zelenka’s going away party.

“Why would I bother?It’s not like I’ll never see him again.He’ll be back from Antarctica as soon as we get the go ahead to go home.”

“Rodney, buddy, we’re not - - “

“Look, Sheppard?Do you mind, some of us have scientific breakthroughs to get back to so shoo and go and do whatever the Air Force have got you occupying your time with.”

That’s how it went, time and time again.John probably should have pushed harder to get Rodney to face up to reality but he was having a hard enough time himself and, well, it was easier to let it lie.

He probably should have realised that the longer it took, the harder it would hit.

John knew something was wrong as soon as he arrived back at the SGC from the latest milk run mission to a backwoods planet that he and his team had been sent on.SG-18 didn’t usually warrant a welcome back party consisting of Sam Carter and Daniel Jackson.

“John.”

Not Colonel. Not Sheppard.John. 

John swallowed hard and shoved his P-90 off to Lt. Brown.

“How soon can I be in Nevada?” he asked

Carter nodded, her mouth tight and pained looking, and he knew he’d guessed right.

Rodney.

John had been surprised when Rodney agreed to the transfer to Area 51 but he probably shouldn’t have been.What he saw as a permanent separation, Rodney saw as a temporary relocation.Or, he had.

It took three hours for John to get to Area 51 and another twenty minutes after that to get through all the checkpoints on his way to the lab that Rodney had barricaded himself in.

Rodney had been locked in the lab, refusing to let anyone in for twelve hours by the time he got there.No one could tell John if there was any food in the lab and all he could do was hope that Rodney’s habit of keeping a drawer full of snacks in his desk drawer had followed him back from Atlantis.

John drew himself up to his full height in an attempt to fight off the post-mission exhaustion and knocked on the door.

“Leave me alone.”

John let out a breath of relief. He knew what Rodney sounded like when he was hypoglycaemic and he wasn’t hearing that now.

“Hey, buddy, it’s me.You wanna maybe let me in.”

“John? Is that you?”

Not Colonel.Not Sheppard.John. 

John swallowed hard and tried to keep his tone light.“In the flesh.Come on, Rodney, I’ve flown all the way here, the least you can do is let me in.”

John heard movement behind the door and stepped back.The door opened slowly and with a warning glance back at the waiting Area 51 personnel, John entered the lab and closed the door behind him.

He was going to handle this his way.

One glance at Rodney and he almost regretted that decision.“Shit, Rodney, your nose.What the hell happened?” 

Rodney raised a hand to his bruised and swollen nose and winced.

“This wouldn’t have happened on Atlantis,” he said, voice thick with the grief that John had expected to hear from the very moment they had left.

John gently guided Rodney to sit down on a chair and tilted his chin to see the damage in a better light. 

“It took me three weeks to stop expecting the doors to open for me,” John admitted.

Rodney huffed a laugh that sounded a lot like a sob. He pushed John off and stood up, moving a few steps back.

“We’re not going back, are we?”

John shook his head, not trusting himself to speak.

Rodney seemed to collapse in on himself, like any dim hope that he’d been holding on to had been shattered by that one shake of the head.

“I didn’t even say goodbye,” Rodney whispered.“To Ronon, or Teyla or to - to her.”

John didn’t know what to say.There wasn’t anything he could say.He stepped towards Rodney, held on to Rodney’s shoulders with both hands and brought his forehead down to rest against Rodney’s own.

John had barely an inch on Rodney height wise which made the Athosian embrace more initiate than it had ever been with Teyla.He could feel Rodney’s breath against his chin, feel the small tremors running through Rodney’s arms.

“You haven’t lost everything,” John said quietly.“We still have us, ok?”

“Us?”

“Us.”

——

Rodney’s little breakdown got them a whole week of downtime.Downtime that they used to explore the concept of ‘us’.

It was a good concept, one that they slid into as easy as breathing.

It was a concept that followed them back to Atlantis when they found their way home.

——

“I told you we’d be back.”

“Shut up and come back to bed.”

**Author's Note:**

> It was Rodney I gave the hurt too this time. Reverting back to form, lol.


End file.
